Thursday, April 05, 2007

Michigan’s impeachment-mad Congressman John Conyers could also stand to calm down. On Wednesday private law firm Deloitte & Touche declined being part of a $225,000 taxpayer-funded contract to help Conyers and his House Judiciary Committee fish for evidence of wrongdoing in the phony scandal over the firing of 8 US attorneys.

“… one of the private law firms chosen by Mr. Conyers to help investigate the Bush administration said they have chosen not to take part in the probe.

"’The House Judiciary Committee did approach us. However, we declined this engagement,’ Jeffrey Zack, a spokesman for Deloitte & Touche, told The Washington Times.

“Mr. Zack declined to comment on why Deloitte & Touche chose not to lend out two employees specified in the contract.

“ The Washington Times first reported last week that Mr. Conyers agreed to pay up to $225,000 to bring in extra lawyers for his investigation of why the eight US. attorneys were fired.

“The contract, which was obtained by The Times, called for D.C. law firm Arnold & Porter to provide the extra attorneys, and to subcontract with Deloitte & Touche.”

As if there weren’t enough lawyers and trained investigators infesting Congress that Conyers has to actually go outside to find more.

The purpose of the extra bodies is to sift through thousands of pages of disclosed materials in hopes of finding evidence—or something that can be twisted into evidence-- of wrongdoing by the White House. So far, this witch hunt has proceeded without benefit of any justifying evidence. Apparently, the smaller the gnat you’re straining for, the bigger the strainer you need, hence the need to add lawyers to the government payroll.

Speaking of the handiness of catchy crutch phrases, (e.g. "calm down"), an article in this morning's Detroit News warning of the second instalment of this year's UN report on global warming seems to call for one:

"Global warming could hit the entire world like a tsunami, wiping out thousands of species unable to adapt to a hotter climate and making billions of people vulnerable to water shortages and the inundation of coastal cities, says a draft summary of a UN sponsored report on climate change scheduled for release on Friday....

"The report is the collective work of more than 1,000 of the world's scientists, including many from Canada, and has a measured and cautious tone."

If this is a measured and cautious tone, I have to believe a slightly less measured and cautious tone would have required an attached video clip of the destruction of planet Alderaan in the first Star Wars.

U.N. reports climate changes are already impacting world's fauna and flora with northward march of plants and animals.

Martin Mittelstaedt / Toronto Globe and Mail

Global warming could hit the entire world like a tsunami, wiping out thousands of species unable to adapt to a hotter climate and making billions of people vulnerable to water shortages and the inundation of coastal cities, says a draft summary of a UN sponsored report on climate change scheduled for release on Friday.

The summary also says there is a 90 percent likelihood that global warming is already beginning to change the world's rich biological heritage of fauna and flora, typified by such recently observed phenomena as the northward march of many animal and plant species."Many natural systems, on all continents and in some oceans, are being affected by regional climate changes, particularly temperature increase," the draft concluded.

It also forecasts a massive upheaval in the world's ecosystems, with as much as half the Arctic tundra being replaced by forest if warming reaches 4 degrees, a level of extreme heating that also has the potential to wipe out about 45 percent of the Amazon's tree species.

The report, by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, is the second in a series of three widely anticipated studies on global warming to be issued this year by the body. The report is the collective work of more than 1,000 of the world's scientists, including many from Canada, and has a measured and cautious tone.

The new report outlines the far-reaching impact that global warming is already having and expected to have over the next few centuries on the world's environment, ranging from freshwater fish to mangroves and boreal forests.

Since Speaker Nancy Pelosi told the President last Wednesday to “calm down with the threats” (after he calmly and authoritatively promised to veto a foolish show-bill intended to short-circuit the Iraq war), I’ve heard the expression “calm down” twice more in other unrelated contexts. I’ve learned through the years that when you can notice that happening, a new crutch phrase has already been born. Who knows but that “calm down” may become yet one more set phrase spreading like a virus through popular English, taking its place alongside such twitchy expressions as “get a life,” “don’t worry, be happy,” and “been there, done that.”

At any rate, as the editorial in today’s Washington Postbluntly sets forth, Speaker Pelosi’s attempt at shadow diplomacy has misfired in her own face, instead of, as intended, in President Bush’s face. Too bad for her. It’s a sign of something wrong when even a sympathetic newspaper like the Post cannot avoid commenting on the missteps of the majority party.

According to the Post, “Ms. Pelosi grandly declared”: “’We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace.’”

The first time one gets to outline a comparison to Munich and Chamberlain there is an intellectual satisfaction that offsets the reality of a depressing replay of history. After the hundredth example of seeing where it needs pointing out it becomes a pure chore. My hat is off to those who never grow exhausted from it. You know what I'm saying. Been there, done that.

From the Washington Post's editorial page:

Pratfall in DamascusNancy Pelosi's foolish shuttle diplomacy

Thursday, April 5, 2007; A16

HOUSE SPEAKER Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) offered an excellent demonstration yesterday of why members of Congress should not attempt to supplant the secretary of state when traveling abroad. After a meeting with Syrian dictator Bashar al-Assad in Damascus, Ms. Pelosi announced that she had delivered a message from Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert that "Israel was ready to engage in peace talks" with Syria. What's more, she added, Mr. Assad was ready to "resume the peace process" as well. Having announced this seeming diplomatic breakthrough, Ms. Pelosi suggested that her Kissingerian shuttle diplomacy was just getting started. "We expressed our interest in using our good offices in promoting peace between Israel and Syria," she said.

Only one problem: The Israeli prime minister entrusted Ms. Pelosi with no such message. "What was communicated to the U.S. House Speaker does not contain any change in the policies of Israel," said a statement quickly issued by the prime minister's office. In fact, Mr. Olmert told Ms. Pelosi that "a number of Senate and House members who recently visited Damascus received the impression that despite the declarations of Bashar Assad, there is no change in the position of his country regarding a possible peace process with Israel." In other words, Ms. Pelosi not only misrepresented Israel's position but was virtually alone in failing to discern that Mr. Assad's words were mere propaganda.

Ms. Pelosi was criticized by President Bush for visiting Damascus at a time when the administration -- rightly or wrongly -- has frozen high-level contacts with Syria. Mr. Bush said that thanks to the speaker's freelancing Mr. Assad was getting mixed messages from the United States. Ms. Pelosi responded by pointing out that Republican congressmen had visited Syria without drawing presidential censure. That's true enough -- but those other congressmen didn't try to introduce a new U.S. diplomatic initiative in the Middle East. "We came in friendship, hope, and determined that the road to Damascus is a road to peace," Ms. Pelosi grandly declared.

Never mind that that statement is ludicrous: As any diplomat with knowledge of the region could have told Ms. Pelosi, Mr. Assad is a corrupt thug whose overriding priority at the moment is not peace with Israel but heading off U.N. charges that he orchestrated the murder of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq al-Hariri. The really striking development here is the attempt by a Democratic congressional leader to substitute her own foreign policy for that of a sitting Republican president. Two weeks ago Ms. Pelosi rammed legislation through the House of Representatives that would strip Mr. Bush of his authority as commander in chief to manage troop movements in Iraq. Now she is attempting to introduce a new Middle East policy that directly conflicts with that of the president. We have found much to criticize in Mr. Bush's military strategy and regional diplomacy. But Ms. Pelosi's attempt to establish a shadow presidency is not only counterproductive, it is foolish.

“Islam isn't in America to be equal to any other faith, but to become dominant. The Koran, the Muslim book of scripture, should be the highest authority in America, and Islam the only accepted religion on earth.”-- Omar Ahmad, Chairman ofCAIR

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“The Ikhwan must understand that their work in America is a kind of grand Jihad in eliminating and destroying the Western civilization from within and ‘sabotaging’ its miserable house by their hands and the hands of the believers so that it is eliminated and God's religion is made victorious over all other religions.”-- Explanatory Memorandum on the General Strategic Goal for theMuslim Brotherhoodin North America

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“These descriptions are very ugly. It is offensive and an insult to our religion. There is no moderate or immoderate Islam. Islam is Islam, and that’s it.”-- Turkey’s Prime Minister,Recep Tayyip Erdogan.